Out There In The Brown Countryside Poem by Francis Duggan

Above the brown dry paddocks the welcome swallows fly
And as they chase flying insects they twitter in the sky
Out there in the quiet Countryside miles from the nearest Town
The tiny bush flies buzzing where the Landscape looks so brown.

Out there in the brown Countryside the magpie's flute sounds clear
And the familiar call of the magpie lark is pleasant for to hear
And in the udergrowth of the blackwood grove the wary gray roos lay
They seldom venture out to graze in the bright sun of the day.

Out there in the quiet Countryside the landscape looks so dry
The mid day sun seems hot enough that an egg 'twould even fry
The creek flows in a trickle the farmer prays for a week's rain
But the rainfall not nearly enough his prayers have been in vain.

Out there in the quiet paddocks from the big Town far away
The grasshoppers are chirping in the warmness of the day
The gray shrike thrush is whistling in his cloak of brown and gray
And Nature looks quite good in brown despite what some might say.